General Notes

Few families in the early annals of England can boast of a more eminentprogenitor than the Bassets, and the descendants of few of theAnglo-Norman nobles attained a higher degree of power than those of RalphBasset (son of Thurstan, the Norman), who was justice of England underKing Henry I. We find his son Ralph, in the reign of Stephen, "aboundingin wealth and erecting a strong castle upon some part of his inheritancein Normandy." Ralph Basset, the justice of England, required none of theartificial aids of ancestry to attain distinction; he had within himselfpowers sufficient at any period to reach the goal of honour, butparticularly to the rude age in which he lived. To his wisdom we are saidto be indebted for many salutary laws, and among others for that of frankpledge. Like all the great men of his day, he was a most liberalbenefactor to the church. He d. in 1120, leaving issue, Thurstine,Thomas, Richard, Nicholas, and Gilbert. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant,Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London,1883, p. 26, Basset, Barons Basset, of Welden]

pg 26, Burke's " A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire", pub 1883